Ban on polystyrene would affect city facilities, venues

Just as San Jose residents are getting used to the city's plastic bag ban, the City Council on Tuesday is expected to ban plastic foam food containers in city facilities and at programs and events in city venues.

Tuesday's move could also be the first step toward a citywide ban on such containers, which would make San Jose the largest city in California -- and possibly the nation -- to bar businesses from using the material. While such a move isn't expected until the fall at the earliest, the city plans to study how such a ban would affect the cost of doing business in San Jose and the amount of litter it would reduce.

"It's a small step to say that we will not use polystyrene, and that we'll look for other solutions," said Mayor Chuck Reed on Monday, adding that further study will "give us a chance to consider the alternatives and give us data about cost and feasibility."

The ban, which is expected to pass, means that starting in May the city will no longer use those ubiquitous clamshell containers when serving meals to seniors at city community centers or at weddings or events inside the City Hall rotunda, for example. Plastic foam already is banned at special events on city property with more than 1,000 people.

Businesses are already lining up against a potentially broader measure.

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"If you have a foam cup, you don't need a cardboard sleeve or jacket," said Michael Westerfield, spokesman for Dart Container, the nation's leading producer of foam cups, and part of an industry group that has budgeted $100,000 to help reduce litter in San Jose, though he said the money does not go to the city.

"If somebody switches that to wind up with two pieces of litter instead of one, you're not helping the city," he said.

The California Restaurant Association also opposes a widespread ban on plastic foam.

San Jose and other Bay Area cities have been ordered by state regulators to cut the amount of litter going into San Francisco Bay by 40 percent by 2014 or face fines, with a goal of total elimination by 2022, and plastic foam is one of the forms of litter polluting the bay, giving the city a strong financial incentive to consider such a ban. City leaders also argue steps such as this one help burnish the city's green image.

Jennifer Garnett, a spokeswoman for the city's Environmental Services Department, said that in Santa Clara County, only Palo Alto has adopted a citywide ban on plastic foam. Mountain View and Sunnyvale are considering such bans.

Other Bay Area localities that have bans include Oakland, Richmond, Fremont, Millbrae and San Mateo County, she said.

Reed expressed skepticism about the ban's effect on litter, saying that studies suggest replacing plastic foam -- which is tough to recycle -- doesn't ultimately reduce the amount of litter.

"It just changes one kind of litter for another kind. People will still throw things on the street," Reed said.

He also urged caution about a citywide ban, in part to study how the plastic bag ban does.

Garnett also said there is more need for research.

"I think our council wants to understand the impact and anything they can do to make this a policy that recognizes the benefit it would create for our environment and also the impact it might have on business."

Councilman Sam Liccardo, who has been pushing for a citywide plastic foam ban, said he understands that cost to businesses may be a factor, but he argued that "the experience of other cities is that this can be done very affordably and sustainably."

Garnett said San Jose has long had a robust environmental purchasing policy so it has been moving away from polystyrene foam products -- businesses at Mineta San Jose International Airport and San Jose McEnery Convention Center, for instance, no longer use the products.